BOOK REVIEW: LA MONNAIE EN CIRCULATION EN FRANCE SOUS NAPOLÉON

Desrousseaux, Stéphane. La monnaie en circulation en France sous Napoléon. Paris: Éditions Les Chevau-légers, 2012. French language. Softbound; 14.8 × 21.0 cm; illustrated in colour; 666 pages. ISBN 978-2-916996-44-8. Price: 48 euro.

Beware! This is not a catalogue but a history textbook. In it, Mr. Desrousseaux, a doctor in Modern and Contemporary History from Université Paris-Sorbonne, shares his years of research in the First Empire, a pivotal period in the history of France. Indeed, he is the first one to so exhaustively study the subject, thanks to the use of numerous unpublished documents found in both the French National Archives and in those of Monnaie de Paris.

The book is divided in three parts in which one finds type study tables of the coins in circulation with actual-size, colour images of each coin.

In the first part, composed of seven chapters, the author dresses the portrait of the state of the currency on Bonaparte’s arrival in power. He then speaks of Bonaparte's vision for a standardized currency and of the difficulties the Emperor and his administration faced following the monetary reform of Year XI.

The author than studies, in the five chapters of the second part, the use of coinage in propaganda and in the conditioning of the public psyche. He therefore studies the types of the period and the progresses made in coinage, and concludes with a study of the money supply in circulation then.

Finally, Part 3 covers the use of coinage as a tool of domination in the territories annexed to France.

An impressive commented, topical bibliography completes the work.

All in all, a superb book well worth the 48-euro price for those that specialize in this period. My rating: 5/5. It is available directly from the publisher at www.numishop.eu/boutique-lib-livres_numismatiques_neufs_et_anciens.html

Wayne Homren, Editor

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